Rights and responsibilities of family members

Rights are the things that one is allowed to do or that one is entitled to. In the family as a unit, parents have their rights and the children have their rights. Some of the rights that parents have are:

1. Making family decisions.
2. Guiding and advising their children.
3. Being respected by their children.
4. Teaching their children community values.

Children in the family also have rights. These rights include:

1. Expressing their opinions.
2. Being treated equally without any kind of discrimination.
3. Being registered after birth and being given names.
4. Living with their parents.
5. Rest and leisure.
6. Getting basic and secondary needs like food, education and health care.
7. Being protected from injury, abuse, economic exploitation and from other forms of harm.

These are duties that a person is obligated to fulfill. Some parental responsibilities are:

1. Making important decisions.
2. Providing security for the family.
3. Ensuring discipline is maintained by their children.
4. Providing family requirements such as food, clothes, shelter and education.
5. Taking charge of day-to-day activities of the family.
6. Loving and taking care of their children.
7. Arranging and organizing family activities such as cleanliness and preparation of meals.
8. Counseling their children to be well behaved.

Responsibilities of children in the family include:

1. Helping with domestic tasks.
2. Respecting parents and elders.
3. Taking care of their younger brothers or younger sisters.
4. Obeying their parents and teachers.
5. Going to school to learn.

The consequences of being irresponsible are:

1. Family instability: children can acquire bad habits and create trouble in the family and in the society.
2. Conflicts: frequent misunderstandings may arise between members of the family.
3. Family breakdown: a family may break down if there are frequent misunderstandings and quarrels.
4. Street children: in the absence of peace and provision of family requirements, children will not stay at home. They will end up in the streets.
5. Lack of basic needs: if parents do not work hard, children cannot get their basic needs as well as other needs. This leads to poverty and lack of development in the nation.